Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Here’s a riddle? What kind of movie would you have if a circus clown became a film director? Answer: Toto the Hero. O.K. It’s not funny, but it just happens to be true. Since there are sad clowns and happy clowns, you get a movie that is both tragic and funny. You get a film about the human condition that is also a thriller. You get a magnificent collage of fantasy and imagination that was all the rage at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991, winning the Prix de la Caméra d’Or. You get a genuine three-ring circus with candied apple that is one of the best kept secrets in cinema.

Historical Background: Jaco van Dormael was born February 9th, 1957 in Brussels, Belgium. He grew up in Germany before studying film in Brussels and Paris. In 1975-6, he worked as a circus clown with the Big Flying Circus in Belgium. He then became a producer of children’s entertainments for three different European theatres. In 1980, he began writing and directing short films for children, documentaries, and promotional films. Toto le Heros (“Toto the Hero”) was his debut feature film, made in 1991. It is a masterful film by any standard, but truly amazing for a first film. Van Dormael produced a second highly regarded feature in 1995, called Le Huitieme Jour (“The Eighth Day”).

The Story: The story covers the full lifespan of its protagonist, Thomas van Hasbroeck. Thomas is played by three different actors. Michel Bouquet plays Thomas as an old man, Jo de Backer plays him as a young adult, and Thomas Godet plays him as a child. As the story unfolds, Thomas is already an old man in a nursing home, chafing at the pain and lost opportunities of a largely unfulfilled life. We learn about his younger years through his trips down memory lane and his dreams, presented as a series of fluid flashbacks. Although the following plot outline presents the events linearly, the film presents the three life stages concurrently through montage editing.

Thomas has been convinced since childhood that he was switched at birth, during a chaotic fire in the pediatric clinic, and is really the child of the rich family that lives next door. Their son Alfred (played as a child by Hugo Harold Harrison) was indeed born on the same day as Thomas, but nothing in the story supports Thomas’s claim other than his own memory, which can hardly be held reliable at day one. Thomas feels that his life was stolen from him by Alfred. To add insult to injury, Alfred is also a bully, both physically and verbally, calling Thomas “Van Chicken-Soup.”

Thomas’s own childhood begins happily enough. His mother (Fabienne Loriaux) is loving and his father (Klaus Schindler) is bigger than life in Thomas’s eyes. He does magic tricks, flies an airplane, disappears mysteriously when he goes to work or hides in a closet, and sings a joyful chanson about love, called “Boom!” (“Boom! When your heart goes boom! It’s love, love, love!”) Thomas believes that his father landed by parachute in his mother’s garden. Thomas has two siblings – a pretty and clever older sister named Alice (Sandrine Blancke), whom he admires intently, and a retarded younger brother, of whom he is protective.

Thomas’s idyllic youth is plundered by a series of tragedies. His father is reported missing after a plane crash during inclement weather and is ultimately found dead. The father had been hired for the fateful flight by Alfred’s father, Mr. Kant, a prosperous businessman, to pick up some overdue goods (marmalade) from England. Thomas and Alice blame Mr. Kant for the loss of their father and vow to burn down the Kant’s house. The mother becomes distraught and struggles to support the children, leading to further humiliations. The mother is caught shop-lifting a piece of meat, which she had concealed under her cap, from a grocery store, when blood starts to drip down her face.

The mother is called away for awhile to settle business relating to her husband's death and arranges for the two older children to spend time at a camp. The children, however, intentionally miss the bus, deciding to stay at home and fend for themselves. At about this time, Alice is in the early stages of thelarche and, rising out of a bubble bath, asks the innocent Thomas to pass her a towel. His eyes widen noticeably and he asks, “Why didn’t you tell me you had breasts?” She replies smoothly, “I thought you’d read about them in the newspapers.” Still mystified, Thomas replies, “It was in the papers?” That night, the pair sleep side by side in bed. Alice asks, “Do you like my nose?” “Do you think my legs are too skinny?” “Do you think my hands are pretty?” “Which hand do you prefer?” He, of course, prefers them both as well as every other square inch of her lovely blossoming body. He stares raptly at the profile of her face and places his little hand on one of her small breasts. She lets it rest there. After a few moments, Thomas asks if Alice knows that Nephritides was Egyptian? “In Egypt, you can marry your sister,” says he.

Under normal circumstances, this understandable infatuation would have melted harmlessly into nothing more than fond nostalgia, but Thomas is deprived of that opportunity. Alice acquires the attentions of Alfred as well, causing Thomas pained jealousy. He bitterly reminds Alice of her promise to burn down the Kant’s house and locks himself in his room. Alice, wanting to please her little brother, hauls a tank full of petrol into the Kant’s garage, but it explodes, destroying both the garage and lovely little Alice. Thomas is scarred forever and even Alfred, to a lesser extent. Thomas daydreams of becoming an heroic secret agent named “Toto” and avenging himself on the Kants.

Thomas progresses into young adulthood and becomes some kind of pencil-pushing clerk. His life is drab and dissatisfying – not hardly the secret agent scenario he had envisioned. One day, he spots a young woman in yellow, Evelyne (Mireille Perrier), at a soccer match who reminds him distinctly of Alice, whose loss still haunts him. He chases after the woman and manages to overhear her providing her address to a clerk in a store. Tracking her down, he initially frightens her with his intense interest in learning about her, but she ultimately humors him with a meeting. Gradually the pair falls hopelessly in love, despite the fact that Evelyne is already (unhappily) married. In one bedroom scene, Evelyne asks Thomas if he like her hands and which one he prefers, which dredges up painful memories for him. Nevertheless, the two make plans to run off together. Just before their rendezvous, Thomas pays a visit to Alfred (now played by Didier Ferney) and discovers, to his amazement, that Evelyne is his wife. Apparently Alfred had also been moved by the same resemblance between Evelyne and Alice. Thomas runs away, leaves town, and fails to keep his meeting with Evelyne.

Now, as an old man, Thomas has much to regret. He gave up the love of his life in adulthood after a series of childhood tragedies. His one solace lies in fantasizing about killing Alfred (played by Peter Böhlke as an old man) who he still believes stole his real life. Alfred’s life, however, has been no less unhappy. Evelyne left him anyway, despite Thomas’s disappearance. The Kant fortune had grown into an industrial conglomerate, but had collapsed in financial ruin. Terrorists are determined to assassinate Alfred. Thomas is determined that it is his right to kill Alfred and no one else’s! Thomas escapes from the nursing home, complete with stolen pistol, and the stage is set for a dramatic conclusion. I won’t give the finale away except to say that it is utterly fantastic: shocking, magical, transcendent, and sublime.

Themes: Despite the arson, bullying, gunplay, tragedies, obsessions, and incipient incest, this film is more up-lifting than downbeat. The film argues, first of all, that it is love that makes life worthwhile. It adds, further, that happiness in life need not be attributed to the luck of the draw – which family we were born into, what tragedies do or do not befall us, or meeting or not meeting our soul mate, for example. Thomas wasted a lifetime imagining that he would have been happy had he been Alfred, only to discover that his life, troubled as it was, was freer and happier overall than Alfred’s. Yet even with both good luck and concerted personal efforts to achieve happy circumstances, there will be times in many, if not most, lives when one is alone and love has perished. This film then argues that, at such times, there is still happiness in learning to celebrate the memory of love that has passed. There is always, as well, the joy in the small glories of life: a flower, a sunny day, or the taste of cherry. Each individual’s life may be miniscule in the context of eternity and the firmament, but that life is simultaneously everything that is important. Van Dormael treats us to a kind of pantheistic finale, demonstrating that the individual after death remains incarnate in the universe when their ashes merge with the fields.

Production Values: The script for this film is very tightly constructed. It flows smoothly across time without being confusing. The thriller element – whether Thomas will act on his obsession to murder Alfred – is always kept in the forefront by the script’s design. It’s superlative story telling, filled with revelations, twists, and drama. The images are visually rich with respect to both color and surrealism.

Michel Bouquet was very effective as the elderly Thomas. His previous work included La Femme Infidele (1969), Mississippi Mermaid (1969), and Just Before Nightfall (1971). Gisela Uhlen, who played the elderly Evelyne, was also in The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978). Mireille Perrier, who was the younger Evelyne, had worked in Bad Blood (1986).

Bottom-Line: Alive with wit, magic, romance, and intrigue, Toto the Hero is a charming film. It’s original in both structure and style. Although this film is not a whole lot like any other, its fanciful quality gives it something of the same luster as films like Amélie, The King of Hearts, and Ma Vie en Rose. Check out this film and I guarantee you’ll come back and thank me for it. Toto the Hero is in Belgian with English subtitles and has a running time of 90 minutes.


*************************************************************************************************
You might want to check out these other excellent films from Belgium:

Farinelli: Il Castrato
No Man’s Land
Rosetta

Recommended: Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older